TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 The owner of Rene\u2019s Mexican Kitchen in Ybor City has asked the community for help after an electrical fire heavily damaged the restaurant last Wednesday, leaving the business temporarily closed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’re looking for help because we’re trying to get back on our feet,\u201d said Chef Rene Valenzuela. \u201cWe didn’t have fire insurance. We had liability insurance, we have worker’s comp, but whatever got burned or melted, water damage, we lost everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Valenzuela said he and his staff were inside the restaurant at 2802 N. 16th St. when the fire started around 10:39 a.m. and were able to evacuate safely. The chef said the building is from the 1920\u2019s and the fire was sparked by old wiring in the attic.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy fire suppression system didn’t even go off because nothing that we were cooking burned,\u201d he said. \u201cThere were no fryers that caught on fire or anything. It came from the attic\u2026 the whole roof burned.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tampa Fire Rescue said when crews arrived, they saw heavy smoke showing from the roof and it took about 45 minutes to get the fire under control.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt went so quickly. You would not believe it,\u201d said Valenzuela. \u201cWe couldn’t get back into the building. We couldn’t get anything out.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Ybor incident is the second time Valenzuela has lost a business to a fire. In 2018, a gas explosion in his food truck left him with life-threatening burns.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat one, I ended up in the hospital,\u201d he said. \u201cHere was just a material loss.\u201d<\/p>\n
After Valenzuela recovered over the following year, he opened Rene\u2019s Mexican Kitchen as a food truck in North Tampa<\/a>. The business grew, and he opened his first brick-and-mortar restaurant in Ybor City in 2023<\/a>.<\/p>\n Greg Spadaccini, owner of Spaddy\u2019s Coffee in Seminole Heights, said Valenzuela\u2019s breakfast burritos have been his best-selling food item.<\/p>\n \u201cSomehow, someway, he’s keeping the burritos rolling,\u201d Spadaccini said. \u201cThe people of Seminole Heights are still fed his burritos.\u201d<\/p>\n Spadaccini said he\u2019s organizing a fundraiser for Valenzuela in his courtyard with a brewery, a DJ and live music. A date has not yet been set.<\/p>\n \u201cHave Rene in the back cranking out some tacos and just a\u2026 good old hangout,\u201d he said. \u201cRaise some money to help support his staff that have been displaced with work and, kind of just raise awareness, let people know what we’re doing for Rene and how we can get Rene back up on his feet.\u201d<\/p>\n Valenzuela said he hopes to reopen Rene\u2019s Mexican Kitchen in the same Ybor City location.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to stay in the community,\u201d he said. \u201cContribute and continue being part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n Valenzuela said the owner of Station House BBQ, Anthony Fonseca, has allowed him to use a spare kitchen to keep his catering business going. Valenzuela also has a food truck on W. Waters Avenue in Tampa.<\/p>\n Before launching Rene\u2019s Mexican Kitchen, Valenzuela was the original founder of Taco Bus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 The owner of Rene\u2019s Mexican Kitchen in Ybor City has asked the community for help…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":420820,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[2031,558,276,2968,115,135,137,136,14104,835],"class_list":["post-420819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-app-local-business","tag-business","tag-hillsborough-county","tag-josh-rojas","tag-news","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-topic-latest-local-business-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=420819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}